Valuing transport noise impacts in public urban spaces in the UK: Gaps, opportunities and challenges

Transport noise is the dominant noise source in urban areas. Its impacts on people at their residential locations are included in economic appraisal in the UK and many other countries, and guidance and analysis tools were developed for the valuation of the impacts. However, for transport noise impacts on people in public urban spaces, e.g., urban streets, squares and parks, there is still a lack of national methodologies. This paper will discuss the gaps, opportunities and challenges in developing a national methodology for these places in the UK. Currently, evidence is lacking on pathways of transport noise impact on people and dose–response relationships at non-residential locations, and the values people place on sound environment quality at these locations. However, opportunities are emerging, with increasing attention to the urban realm in UK transport policy, and recent progress and transitions in urban sound environment research, including association between public health and urban soundscape, standardisation in soundscape research and practice, and crowdsourcing sound environment evaluations. The associated challenges, as compared to methodology for residential locations, may include calculating noise from non-free-flow traffic, defining and adding diverse receptor types, estimating dynamic affected population, accounting for diversity in level and source of background sound, and obtaining large and consistent data for dose–response or willingness-to-pay analyses

Introducing willingness-to-pay for noise changes into transport appraisal: an application of benefit transfer.

Numerous research studies have elicited willingness-to-pay values for transport-related noise, however, in many industrialised countries including the UK, noise costs and benefits are still not incorporated into appraisals for most transport projects and policy changes (Odgaard et al, 2005; Grant-Muller et al, 2001). This paper describes the actions recently taken in the UK to address this issue, comprising: primary research based on the city of Birmingham; an international review of willingness-to-pay evidence; development of values using benefit transfers over time and locations; and integration with appraisal methods. Amongst the main findings are: that the willingness-to-pay estimates derived for the UK are broadly comparable with those used in appraisal elsewhere in Europe; that there is a case for a lower threshold at 1 45dB(A)Leq,18hr1 rather than the more conventional 55dB(A); and that values per dB(A) increase with the noise level above this threshold. There are significant issues over the valuation of rail versus road noise, the neglect of non-residential noise and the valuation of high noise levels in different countries. Conclusions are drawn regarding the feasibility of noise valuation based on benefit transfers in the UK and elsewhere, and future research needs in this field are discussed

Transport Accessibility and Land Value – A Commercial property price model for Northern England

The central aim of this study was to use newly-developed models to develop the evidence base on the relationship between transport accessibility and commercial property prices. Understanding commercial property impacts help understand the benefits following transport interventions and potential revenues from land value capture. In developing a set of hedonic models of commercial property value for the TfN area, we allowed for a detailed analysis of the role of accessibility, by multiple modes. Our models include business-to-business (B2B) accessibility, as well as business-to-labour (B2L) accessibility, to take into account important linkages between businesses as well as access to labour/customers. Our modelling results found significant impacts for floorspace, nearby tram stops, local area employment density, income and deprivation measures. For accessibility, the picture is more nuanced with different accessibility measures emerging as important for different property types

Ten questions concerning soundscape valuation

The past two decades have seen an ongoing paradigm shift from noise control to soundscaping, and soundscape approaches have been applied in noise management projects. However, cost-benefit analysis (CBA), which is widely used for economic appraisal of projects that would impact on the sound environment, remains noise-based and residential-location-focused. As a result, benefits of wanted sounds are omitted from appraisal. While there is a wealth of literature seeking to place a value/cost on changes in noise exposure, little research has been done on soundscape valuation. Consequently, there is little evidence on the monetary value of soundscape, which is essential for developing soundscape-based CBA. This paper initiates a systematic discussion on this emerging topic, by addressing ten questions covering the definition and scope for soundscape valuation, potential valuation methods for primary soundscape valuation research and required data, special concerns on private and public contexts, non-monetary valuation and soundscapes of cultural and/or historical significance, and the eventual application of soundscape values in CBA and beyond. Answers are based on reflection of existing literature on environmental valuation and soundscape, and visionary opinions by the authors from research, practice and policy sectors, and can help establish a framework to support future research in soundscape valuation and relevant areas

From the costs of noise to the value of soundscape?

The past two decades have seen an ongoing paradigm shift from noise control to soundscaping, and soundscape approaches have been applied in noise management projects. However, cost-benefit analysis (CBA), which is widely used for economic appraisals of projects that would impact on the sound environment, is still noise-based and residential-location-focused. As a result, benefits of wanted sounds are omitted, and only very limited receiver types and contexts are covered. While there is a wealth of literature on valuing the costs of noise and the benefits of noise reduction little research has been done on soundscape valuation, and consequently there is little evidence on the monetary value of soundscape, which is essential for developing soundscape-based CBA. Starting from the costs of noise this paper will discuss the motivation of soundscape valuation, methodology for primary soundscape valuation research, and the use of soundscape values, to contribute to the development of holistic soundscape CBA

Opening out and closing down: The treatment of uncertainty in transport planning’s forecasting paradigm

© 2019, The Author(s). Since the 1960s, development of the transport system has been framed by the notion of forecasting future demand. Yet the past decade or more appears to signal some significant changes to the role of travel in society which are having a material impact on how much people travel (and may travel in the future). Coupled with the potential for major technological changes and a range of climate adaptation scenarios, the future of mobility presents today’s decision making on transport strategy and investment with a broader set of uncertainties than has previously been considered. This paper examines current mainstream practice for incorporating uncertainty into decision-making, through an illustrative case study of the highly codified approaches of the Department for Transport in England. It deconstructs the issue by first focussing on different ways in which there is an opening out or acceptance of new uncertainties and how this creates a (wider) set of potential futures. It then turns to consider how this set of futures is used, or not, in decision-making, i.e. the process of closing down uncertainty to arrive at or at least inform a decision. We demonstrate that, because the range of uncertainties has broadened in scope and scale, the traditional technocratic approach of closing down decisions through sensitivity testing is at odds with the greater breadth now being called for at the opening out stage. We conclude that transport decision-making would benefit from a rebalancing of technical depth with analytical breadth. The paper outlines a plausible new approach to opening out and closing down that is starting to be applied in practice. This approach must be accompanied by an opening up of the processes by which technical advice for decisions are reached and how uncertainties are understood and negotiated

The funding game: performance incentives for local transport plans

This paper examines the recently introduced performance-based funding system for English local transport authorities, using game theory to help analyse: how the overall structure of the system incentivises the players; how the detailed features of the system affect its incentive properties and its effectiveness; and what alternative incentive systems might be considered by a government department wishing to achieve the best possible performance at local level. The researchers’ initial task was to understand and document the real game as it is currently played, and this was done with the assistance of interviews with key individuals in the Department for Transport and English local authorities (Kelly et al, 2006). Next, game theory models were reviewed for relevance/applicability, and two possible analogues were found for the Local Transport Plan game: the rank order tournament of Lazear and Rosen (1981) or the rent-seeking contest (Tullock, 1980). Ultimately, Clark and Riis’ (1998) multi-player, multi-prize model of the rent-seeking contest was adopted and the game was solved for the 85 player Local Transport Plan case. Using the results, an analysis is given of the current LTP game, including its overall structure and specific features. Our findings point to the prize structure (how many prizes and how ‘graduated’) as a key issue in the design of optimal incentives in this application. The existence of a ‘level playing field’ for competition between different local authorities is another issue which has a large bearing on the optimal incentive structure – and which DfT has given attention to in practice. Finally, we assess alternative possible incentive structures in the paper, including their possible application to the LTP game and the conditions under which the game theory work suggests they are most likely to be successful

Values of Travel Time Savings UK

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Values of time for use in modelling and appraisal are informed by three sets of considerations - evidence, policy, and practicality. The evidence may be theoretical or empirical in nature: while in some cases values of travel time savings (VTTS) can be derived on the basis of theoretical reasoning, it is more often the case that theory alone gives no guide to the relevant VTTS, and a mix of theoretical and empirical approaches is required. In relation to policy, Governments may choose to apply VTTS in particular ways for the evaluation of public projects. The outstandig example in the UK is the use of a single standard value of non- work time savings in evaluation of public projects, despite an acceptance that VTTS varies with socio-economic characteristics. Finally, with respect to practicality, Government must ensure that official procedures are practical and cost-effective for the use to which they will be put. The current study begins by considering the evidence. As a stepping stone to writing this report, we produced six interim working papers which are referred to at relevant points. A list of these working papers, which are all available as ITS Working Papers, is given in Appendix A. An earlier version of the summary of the evidence was produced in August 2001, and on the basis of this, Dr Denvil Coombe was commissioned to consider the feasibility of implementing the findings from the evidence. A seminar for experts was held at the Department in December 2001, and Dr Coombe's report has been submitted to the department. As a result of that seminar, various issues came to light which have necessitated further investigations of the data, and this Report takes account of these, with the detailed additional work reported in Appendices. In the later chapters of this Report, we make recommendations in relation to policy and practicality, in the light of the revised evidence, and the conclusions from Dr Coombe's work. The layout of the report is as follows. Chapter 2 provides some background discussion of VTTS with special relation to the UK experience, and describes the main aims of the study. Chapter 3 discusses the VTTS for employers' business travel, including freight transport. Chapter 4 is concerned with the relationship between the VTTS and the sign and size of the time savings. Our preferred approach for the value of non-work time savings is set out for car users in Chapter 5, and in Chapter 6, for public transport users. Then in Chapter 7, we construct a bridge between the empirical results and their use in evaluation. In Chapter 8, we consider. against theow and evidence, the case for the standard value of non-working time in evaluation and for varikons in the VTTS by journey length and\mode of travel.Finally, in Chapter 9, we make recommendations for revisions to the values in the Transport Economics Note

The impacts of a sustainability appraisal on transport strategy selection

There is great concern about the long-term ‘sustainability’ of the transport sector both nationally and globally. Much work has focussed on the development of indicator sets to monitor changes in the sustainability of transport over time (Litman, 2005). However, in reviewing indicators for sustainability in 2003 Gudmundsson concluded that “Even a perfect indicator system for sustainable mobility may be of little relevance if it has no bearing on actual decisions taken”. The research described in this paper attempts to answer these concerns by bringing together modelling tools to try and forecast the impacts of a range of transport strategies across the three pillars of sustainability (economy, environment and social). The paper begins by defining key concepts and describing the framework for sustainability appraisal, including how it differs to existing frameworks. The framework was presented to 14 key stakeholders including four central government departments (transport, planning, finance and environment), practitioners and pressure groups. The outcomes of these discussions and modifications made to the proposed framework are presented. A practical implementation of the framework has subsequently been undertaken for a large Metropolitan area in England. Three scenarios examining differing levels of investment in the transport system, degrees of behavioural change and demand management measures are presented. Of particular interest is the attempt to link a strategic land-use transport interaction model to a GIS-based model of accessibility and social deprivation. The findings suggest that there are serious gaps in our capabilities in capturing sustainability impacts under economic, social and environmental headings. Despite this, the process proposed identified some conflicts between the types of scenarios scoring positively under current appraisal methods and those proposed. This suggests the need for a broader consideration of the impacts of strategies, including the long-term direction of change such as that proposed